1. Field of the Invention
The invention described herein relates to adhesive bandage packaging, and ways to improve them, in particular with regard to the ease and speed with which they can be used.
2. Prior Art
There are a number of patents which describe ways in which adhesive bandages of the Band-Aid variety (a trademark of Johnson and Johnson) are more rapidly and easily used. Oliveira in U.S. Pat. No. 5,643,188 shows a bandage attached to a release liner in a way which makes it easier to grip. Dupont in U.S. Pat. No. 4,997,092 shows a bandage envelope which can be pulled apart. Damikolas in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,343 B1 shows a dispenser which strips away the envelope which encloses the bandages. Dotta in U.S. Pat. No. 6,719,137 shows a configuration for the bandage envelope which involves pulling on opposite ends of the envelope to release the bandage. Etheredge in U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,477 shows a plastic case with a cavity in place of the paper envelope used by currently available adhesive bandages, with only one release paper with its end folded over to permit easy removal. Grossman in U.S. Pat. No. 6,923,320 also shows various ways to release a bandage from its envelope by pulling on the opposite ends of the envelope. Grossman's patent includes a number of prior art references not cited above. Despite these and other packaging proposals, the half-dozen or so makers of bandages in envelopes vary little in their packaging structures. Nonetheless, consumer annoyance with the difficulties of using “Band Aids”™ is commonplace and near-universal.
The envelopes which encloses adhesive bandages being manufactured today typically have narrow “tabs”, which range from ⅛th inch to ¼ inch wide, on one end of the envelope. In most cases these tabs are formed by folding a narrow strip on the ends of one or both of the adhesive-coated sides of the envelope on itself, so that if these tabs are manually gripped, the two halves of the envelope may be peeled apart. In practice, these narrow tabs can be gripped only by fingertips, and in the case of some bandage brands, they are difficult to separate, even though they are not glued together. In the case of some manufacturers, the tab on one half of the envelope protrudes beyond the other to some extent, up to ⅛th inch. Other makers give the tabs no significant separation at the ends of the envelope, so that peeling the envelope open is extremely difficult. In a few cases, there are no tabs, requiring that the envelope be torn open. Once opened, the envelope's bandage has its two adhesive halves covered by release strips, which, once pulled off, reveal the adhesive of the bandage. If a user pulls off both release strips at once, however, the adhesive is now attached to the fingers of the user, and hence loses some of its adhesive grip. Consequently, the ideal use of the bandage requires that only one release strip is removed at a time, with the exposed adhesive then placed on the skin while the bandage is held using the other release strip. An alternative proper use is to pull both release strips partially off the adhesive, with the partially exposed adhesive then pressed to the skin while the remainder of the release strips are removed. However, in many cases, both release strips are removed at once, as previously described, with the possibility of the adhesive strips touching each other, or being folded on themselves, or at least sticking to the fingers of the user.
While the enlargement of envelope end tabs would be useful to help peel the envelope open, if they even lightly stick together, separating them can be difficult and time consuming. Often, the envelope must be opened rapidly, as a cut may be dripping blood. Or, the user may have poor eyesight or may have impaired manual dexterity, making it difficult to either find the tabs to separate and pull or to tear the envelope apart. In a few examples, the end of the envelope with the tabs is indicated by a color stripe. In other cases, there are no markings that would be useful to someone with poor eyesight or in a rush. Some makers of packaged bandages even pack them as pairs, side by side, or in groups, so that to open only one envelope, the packages must first be separated, and then one peeled, or torn, open. There are examples of envelopes which have no method of opening the envelope other than tearing off an end, a method which may result in the bandage being torn in the process.
Goals and Objectives of the Invention
The goal of the present invention is to speed the use of packaged adhesive bandages and to minimize mistakes in their application, such as the user touching the adhesive prior to it being applied to the area of the wound. The present invention provides a structure which enables the user with poor eyesight or trembling fingers to easily and rapidly peel open an adhesive bandage envelope, and to remove the bandage in a way which minimizes inadvertent finger contact with an adhesive surface prior to application.
For the average user, the time required by contemporary designs from box to skin varies from 22 to 35 seconds, sometimes longer, even over a minute, depending on whether the envelope tabs easily separate or not and whether the person using the bandage knows how the tabs should be separated. If the envelope is torn open rather than peeled apart, total time is often over 40 seconds, possibly longer if the adhesive bands stick to the fingers of the user. Some adhesive bandage envelope designs provide little or no clue to which end should be opened, and are so difficult to peel apart that they invite the envelopes to be torn open, the slowest way to remove the bandage. Using the structure described herein, however, total time can be as low as 10 seconds or less, with a typical high of 15 seconds. The most important aspects of the present invention are that the bandages employing its teachings can be rapidly used by individuals with poor eyesight and trembling hands, and that there is only modest added manufacturing cost associated with its use. An advantage of a major embodiment of the invention is that it allows an adhesive bandage to be extracted from its box by pulling on a tab extending from the box which also peels the envelope apart as the bandage is removed. Another advantage of the invention is that it allows one box to contain various sizes and types of bandages, each with their own exit door, so that a user need not randomly pull bandages from a box looking for a particular size.